It is becoming more common for businesses (and law firms) to have a corporate presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google plus. Some take advantage of promotional uses such as contests on Facebook.

It is important to look at the terms of use if you do that. Facebook, for example, has terms that govern how contests can be run on Facebook. I suspect many Facebook contests run afoul of these terms, and get away with it only because Facebook didn’t happen to catch it. I also suspect that many people running the contests are not aware that the rules exist, or if they do know, see others violating, so think they can get away with it too.

Violating the rules is dangerous, as there is a risk that the social media site might simply terminate the page, or even suspend the account. That would certainly be embarrassing and damage one’s reputation, and could, depending on the circumstances, attract the wrath of users or followers.